A heat wave in Seattle Washington is three days in a row when the temperature gets over 85 degrees. Yes, you heard me correctly. Three days over 85 degrees is considered a heat wave in Seattle.
I realize that if you are in other parts of this great country of ours, you may not have much sympathy for those of us in the Pacific Northwest. Especially when this summer has seen sometimes scalding temperatures seemingly everywhere across the country. 2023 is one of the hottest years on record. July was the hottest month every recorded in the United States.
Weeks in the Phoenix area with temperatures over 100 degrees. Similarly in the Palm Springs area of California, temps have been in the 116-118 range. Death Valley California reporting the highest temperatures in the world, reaching 128 degrees in July.
Texas has had 40 days in a row in the triple digits. The Midwest and the entire Southeast have suffered. The Northeast has fought not only high temps but also 90-100% humidity. Even Idaho and Montana have had 100 degree days. It has been a hot summer almost everywhere. Extreme heat.
Yet, if you were in Seattle the last three days, and you listened to the local media and talked with your neighbors, the number one topic is the heat, and how hot it is.
And remember, this heat of 85 degrees, getting up to 91 degrees in some locations, is humidity free. Nevertheless, for Seattleites this is way above normal.
Seattleites do not routinely air condition their homes. I have lived here for almost 50 years and never have even thought of installing air conditioners. Never even crossed my mind.
However, as the earth heats up every year, Seattleites are responding. Just ten years ago only 31% of the Seattle metro housing units had AC. Now, just ten years later some 53% have air conditioning. Seattle has lost its ranking as the city with the least number of air conditioning units to San Francisco which has only 45% of it housing units with AC. But both Seattle’s and San Francisco’s rates of housing units with air conditioning are still far below other major cities in the US.
Heat can have a significant health effect, especially on certain population groups. Public health officials issue warnings to the populace to take care, use sun protection and hydrate. Sometimes temporary shelters are set up for those needing relief. Access to water is emphasized. Wildlife fire watches are intensified.
But today I saw something that only happens in Seattle when it gets really hot. When there are three days in a row when the temperature gets to 85 degrees the City of Seattle Department of Public Works kicks into gear. What do they do, you may ask.
They go to the Seattle’s historic drawbridges. With all the water in and around Seattle, there are a total of 124 bridges. However, special attention is given to the Lake Washington Ship Canal and its four historic drawbridges that allow marine traffic to go from the fresh water of Lake Washington to Lake Union and eventually through the Ballard Locks to the salt water of Puget Sound which eventually leads to the Pacific Ocean. These four drawbridges are over 100 years old and one, the Fremont Bridge, is on the National Register of Historic Places. In fact, the Fremont Bridge in Seattle is the most active drawbridge in the United States, with the most openings and closings of any drawbridge. On an average, it opens 35 times a day.
The four drawbridges are steel-decked, double-leaf drawbridges. These are bascule drawbridges. Bascule is the French word for seesaw. The bridge uses a counterweight to continuously balance a span as the bridge is lifted.
When the city workers get to each bridge, they go to the nearest fire hydrant, they turn on the water and proceed to hose down the steel bridge. Or they use water flushing trucks to spread water on the steel grates of the bridge. They do this for 6 hours straight on day one. And six hours straight on day two. They keep doing it until the temperature drops below 85 degrees.
They do this because steel expands with heat. When a steel drawbridge expands, all kinds of problems can happen. The bridge can get stuck in either an open or closed position. And this can create havoc, not only for the boat traffic that needs the bridges to open, but also for the cars, bikes and walkers that rely on the bridges to get from one neighborhood in the city to another. The drawbridges are raised and lowered, stopping car and truck vehicle traffic, some 14,000 times each year.
The work crews are giving our bridges a cool water bath, as I found out today, when I stopped on my bicycle ride to talk with the workmen, trying to understand what was going on. I, frankly, had never realized that Seattle’s drawbridges needed a cool water bath when it got hot. This was an eye opener for me.
And they let kids climb on the bridges? How many fall or dive off, I wonder.
When the temperature hits 60 degrees in Seattle, you will see the shorts and flip flops appear. It is summer attire! If Seattle climbs to 90 degrees for many it becomes unbearable because, as you point out, air conditioning has not been standard in Seattle homes.
Loved your “cool down water bath” story about Seattle’s draw bridges. Whatever road or by-way you travel, you share gems of information that make reading your posts interesting, educational, and fun!
Wow! Bridges need cooling too! Never have thought in those terms, but it makes sense.
The globe is heating up as it’s population continues to explode. More people, more human caused fires, more pavement, more bridges. More air conditioners pumping out heat.
Unprecedented massive fires, many human caused by carelessness. Cars makers have abandoned putting ash trays in cars in favor of yet more cup holders. Governments are encouraging marijuana smoking which add to the number of cigarette butts being tossed out of car windows—less and less vegetation and more fires and people will ensure more heat. The Bible speaks of the Earth’s next big issue to be by fire, could we be in the early stages of that prophesy—the folks in Lahaina might feel that the apocalypse was recently visited upon them—just sayin”
Well that was a first for Thom and me to learn! Crazy right? We are supposed to have a hurricane in Irvine on Sunday. No escaping Mother Nature! Stay cool 😎
I read somewhere that Chicago has the largest number of bascule bridges in the country. Across the Chicago River and its North and South Branches. But I never saw them hosed down. They do get stuck occasionally that was blamed on a certain barge that served the newspapers. A curse! Turned out that ship just went up and down the river many more times than any other so it was a statistical thing.